Kaleidoscope Recovery...

I was angry, I felt sick, I was close to tears, I haven't even been able to look at it for days... it was almost as if that pile of fabric was leering at me; "you've bitten off more than you can chew, you can't make us fit together"

And then the lovely, fabulous Sarah from Sew Me came to my aid! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Sarah! You're a life quilt saver!

I was all geared up for the Kaleidoscope QAL hosted by Don't Call Me Betsy, but then my templates didn't print to scale, my cutting was consequently all wrong and my blocks were horrendous. I posted some pics on flikr and asked for help and then saw that Sarah was having problems too so got in touch with her and bless her, she sent me a lovely email with a link to a paper pieced kaleidoscope template which had worked for her.

And an afternoons work later, voila!

I'm more than pleased with the outcome of this block (which was made with some leftover fabric, not the actual cut pieces). I'll now be unpicking my pairs, recutting etc etc etc so it won't be a quick recovery but a recovery none the less! :o)

I'm featured... kinda

I received a lovely email from Melissa over at Happy Quilting today. As part of Happy Quilting's 1 Year Blogiversary Celebration Melissa is having a little parade of some of our creations made using her tutorials. Here is mine;

This was my first ever quilting project, made back in January/February of this year, it's a king size bed quilt. I followed Melissa's Moda Bakeshop tutorial called Sugar Pop n Change which can be found here.

Melissa says of my quilt; "I am blown away that she bit off a king to start with. Amazing, it is absolutely stunning!!!" - how happy am I that someone so talented uses the words 'amazing' and 'stunning' in relation to me my quilt!

WIP Wednesday

The weekend flew by... Monday and Tuesday flew by.. OMG it's Wednesday already!

Ummmm... a little progress on Emily's rag quilt

i love these Ann Kelle remix fabrics, and we're going with 2 tone pink on the back (Kona Baby Pink and Candy Pink) to co-ordinate the design with Aidan's 2D Zoo rag quilt.

I received two lovely packages yesterday;

containing the (finally chosen!) backing fabric for my Central Park 4 Patch Quilt and some more FQ's in different colourways which will be used in the skill builder sampler.

I had an unexpected liason with the troubleshooting pages of my sewing machine handbook too... how is it that you can be happily sewing along one minute and then BAM! your tensions are all off? I had not adjusted the lower thread tension before now - but CHECK! I think I've cured it... althought the machine seems noisier - perhaps all the fluff I cleared out of the underbelly of the machine was deadening the noise all along?!?

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced today - who's fabulous work ethic and creativity put me to shame! :o)

4 years ago today...

...there was alot of screaming going on! My baby boy turned 4 today! Happy Birthday Dan x x x

So we've had a party, lots of family and friends over... not much sewing going on, just a bit of cutting for Emily's rag quilt.

WIP Wednesday

Hi folks!

In progress this week;
secret project

Chain piecing for Kaleidoscope QAL all done

3 blocks made for Skill Builder Sampler - up to date

carried over;
Black and white king size bed quilt,
Lily's QAL Dresden,
Central Park 4 Patch - backing fabric has been ordered!

STATS
New projects this week: 3
Finished this week: 0
In Progress: 5

In linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday - are you?


I'm off to see Take That at Wembley Stadium tonight, so that's all from me today, I'm off to find make up and hair straigteners as I'm leaving in just over an hour!!!!

All Heart Appeal

Caroline over at Serenity Quilts is hosting an appeal for appliqued heart blocks so that she can make a quilt (or quilts) to raffle to raise money for Cancer Research.

It's such a worthy charity - I think we all know someone affected by cancer!

Blocks should be 8"x8" in white or cream, the heart can be any shape, size, colour as long as it's appliqued on. Blocks are to be sent to Caroline for sashing and making into a quilt(s).

For full details hop on over to Carolines blog. I'm in... are you?

Vote Now!

Just a quickie... I've been playing around with ideas for the fabric layout on the kaleidoscope quilt.

The first row I'm calling 'top and tail',
the second row I'm calling 'wear your own hat',
and the third row is 'randomness'

Let me know which layout you think I should go with - vote now!
Thanks my lovlies :o)

Sunny Sunday

What a lovely day. We went down to Hayling Island and sat by the sea this morning, then it was back to watch the Wimbledon Mens Singles Final this afternoon, and after a lovely BBQ cooked by hubby for tea I managed to get cutting on the FQ's for the Kaleidoscope QAL (hosted by Don't Call Me Betsy)

I have re-jigged my value 9 patch block for the Skill Builder Sampler (hosted by Sewn)

and also made block 3 - churn dash.

So I'm about as up to date as I'm gonna be for a sunny Sunday. Hope you all had a good weekend.